California State University, Chico is one of sixteen universities accepted this year as a New Media Center. New Media Centers is a non-profit consortium of higher education institutions and digital technology companies promoting teaching and learning using new media.
"The strength of the Chico proposal is our ability to extend and blend our successful Technology and Learning Program and Instructional Media Center services into a New Media Center that offers faculty a unique combination of high-end digital graphics and learning-technology support," said Bill Post, director of Academic Resources.
Chico's New Media Center will develop a Multimedia Education Repository for Learning and On-line Teaching (MERLOT), which will facilitate sharing of multimedia learning modules such as audio or visual information, educational animation, graphics, databases, and discussions on teaching and learning for various disciplines among the more than 337,000 students and 18,000 faculty at the twenty-two CSU campuses, the New Media Centers, and other institutions nationwide.
For example, faculty in one location can learn from others across the country about how to teach their students about fruit flies through interactive Web pages where students can virtually "dissect" the insect. Teachers can share their ideas about putting syllabi and class assignments on the Web, or using collaboration tools so their students can all work on a project even though they live far apart. Chico's proposal includes the creation of a Northern California community college consortium for shared new media development, support, and training.
Chico State plans to provide training of community college faculty in educational technology, Web-based courses and syllabi, and instructions on new multimedia tools. Through the center, teachers will be able to share successful models for incorporating new media into the learning process, such as Chico's Learning Productivity Projects.
The addition of Chico State will bring the total number of New Media Centers to 101 in thirty-four states, in addition to centers in Canada, Australia, Colombia, Finland, Sweden, and Taiwan. Other members include Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, Dartmouth, Princeton and several University of California campuses. Corporate members include Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, Compaq Computer, Macromedia, and Prentice Hall publishers.
New Media Centers identifies academic institutions around the world best suited to serve as models for innovation. NMC and its corporate members then help them acquire and use state-of-the-art new media technology to create hands-on laboratories. These laboratories offer a setting for beta-testing, software development, and the training of tomorrow's workforce.
Vicky Banes, Information Resources